Monster Reborn
by circonflexe
Summary: Seto Kaiba has just lost everything including his company and his father. Starting a new life under the Wheelers land lordship, he is reminded of people from his past he wished to forget. In particular one person, whom he'd never noticed before, indirectly affected by his wrath, who accepts him in a world where he is not only the outcast, but the underdog as well. SetoxSerenity
1. A New Dawn

**So this plot came about. Let me know what you think!**  
**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters  
**

**xx**

* * *

Seto leaned over his desk. What had his father left him with? Nothing. Kaiba Corp was officially bankrupt. Some legacy this had turned out to be.

He buried his face in his hands. That stupid _stupid _man. How was he supposed to provide for Mokuba, for that stupid ferret he carried around and his current ongoing post secondary education? Simple answer was he couldn't.

He'd have to cut his business degree on hold, get a real job, and live on what little was left of his trust fund, seeing that his father had gambled that all away as well as his life on that Vegas trip, and somehow keep his brother alive. Perfect, just the amount of responsibility he needed in his early twenties.

It was probably awful that he felt no remorse for the death of his "father." Supposed father anyway. That man had only ever been a background character in his life. No blood relations, no real bond. Nothing. Emptiness, that's what he'd felt since leaving the orphanage and entered this man's house.

He stood abruptly flipping the bureau onto its side. He grabbed his briefcase and jacket, hurriedly rushing towards the stairs, avoiding all eye contact with any employee. He wasn't in the mood to break it to them that they had all just lost their jobs, all he wanted was a sandwich, and maybe a bottle of whisky.

He ran down flight, after flight of stairs until he reached the bottom floor. The valet, creepily, already had his car ready and running in the front. God, he wouldn't miss this pampering. People doing simple tasks for you, treating you like royalty even though you were no better than they were. He'd always treated everyone like trash, equally, wanting to maintain this aura of the "stepson who didn't give a shit," but somewhere along the line he'd stopped pretending being an asshole and had somehow become one. Whatever, the world was full of assholes, he was just adding to the statistic.

Speeding down the freeway, he somehow managed to get to his apartment unscathed and unticketed. How you may ask? He had no fucking clue. Dumb luck probably.

He made his way to the liquor cabinet and brought out a mickey of fireball whisky. He got some ice from the fridge and poured himself a glass, then two and eventually almost the whole bottle. How would he break this news to Mokuba? The only person who looked up to him. The only person who _**appreciated **_him. He didn't know, and he wasn't planning on having to deal with this at the present moment, he just leaned his head back as his whole world went as black as he felt his soul had always been.

* * *

The next few weeks were hectic, signing paperwork for the company, taking care of his fathers funeral, finding a new place to live, selling the apartment, trying to deal with a hysteric Mokuba, it was a bit too much, even for him.

He'd found a cheap little loft outside the city center, in a decently affordable neighbourhood. If Seto Kaiba was going to downgrade he was going to downgrade slowly, not all at once, he still had his reputation to uphold. After a man's lost everything, but also nothing, a reputation was all he had left.

The university had taken his financial situation into consideration, and had given him an extension on his examinations for the term. They'd however refused to down the tuition fee, that regardless of his scholarship was still high. He'd come to the conclusion in his drunken stupor that he had the grades to have a full ride scholarship at the local university as opposed to the private one his father had sent him to, and if he wanted to amount to anything and to help Mokuba to the best of his ability, an education was definitely a start.

He'd also picked up a part time job down at the mall in one of the coffee and tea shops. It was ridiculous, he, Seto Kaiba, would be a barista. If that wasn't low then he didn't know what was.

He sighed as he drove his now, honda civic (a serious downgrade from his previously owned porsche, and still smelt a little bit like the fish) with a sleeping Mokuba in the back packed in between what odds and ends he had managed to salvage from the bankruptcy of the corporation. The image of his brother in his mirror was so peaceful, so serene and yet heartbreaking.

Pulling up into the little designated space for his supposed "driveway" he stopped the car and stood outside of it casually taking in the growing dawn. He reached into his left pant pocket for a lighter as his other hand unearthed the pack of cigarettes in his coat. He took a deep breath in and let out a large puff of smoke in the warming air. This was it. A new life. He'd have to start it, no looking back, forget about who he was and just roll with the punches.

"Hey Kaiba, what the hell are you doing here?"

Seto turned around startled, the cigarette almost falling out of his mouth as he turned to face an annoying blond mop of hair with an equally annoying voice.

"Wheeler? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to greet the new tenants, now I'm going to say it again: _what are you doing here?_"

I gulped. No. This couldn't be happening.

Joey Wheeler couldn't be my landlord.


	2. The Curb

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* * *

Seto spit out his cigarette onto the ground and watched its embers die out as he let the news sink in: He was under Wheeler ownership.

Joey had been just about as done with the confrontation as he'd been, muttering that his sister would take care of showing him and Mokuba where their villa was located.

Wheeler's sister, what was her name, Serendipity? Something like that. Last time he'd seen her, she'd been visually impaired and barely a teenager. Years have passed now, she must be in what, freshman college year? He didn't know and he really didn't care.

He sat on the curb, not bothering to wake Mokuba. He could sleep in the car as long he wanted, he wasn't gonna rush the little guy, especially after all the shit he'd been through.

Just then he heard footsteps come up from behind him.

"Hello Seto Kaiba is it?"

He turned to face a pair of legs to which led up to a petite brown haired girl with a sweet smile. Ah this must be her. She grew up nicely, he observed as he stood up. Nothing too spectacular, but nonetheless 'nice.'

"Yes, that's me."

"Nice to meet you! I'll show you to the place you've rented," she chirped before turning abruptly on a heel and continuing towards the backyard.

There were a nest of guest houses, mostly empty ones from what he could gather, but all seemed to hold more life than Kaiba Corp, a skyscraper full of hundreds of employees, ever had.

She led him to one near the back, further from the main house before turning abruptly on her heel and handing him the keys in one swift movement.

"This one's yours, I'm sorry I can't stay to help you get settled in but I have to go to the post office before it closes," she smiled once again before turning around and speeding back towards the main building.

"Enjoy your stay," she called over her shoulder.

"Thank you," he said certainly, yet in his mind his reply carried no certainty as he stared down at the keys before putting them in the lock and opening the doors to his new home.

* * *

He slowly started to unpack, taking his own sweet time, taking smoke breaks in between as he'd moved an unwilling sleep deprived Mokuba onto a couch where he'd allowed the zombie to face plant.

He'd unpacked most of the main things, appliances, kitchenware, and bathroom necessities, now it was just his room; clothes and the lot.

Now, Seto Kaiba didn't have many clothes to unpack, it mainly just consisted of black in different materials as well as a few suits. He wasn't a man of variety, but he sure was a man of class. Of course, he'd had a lot more but given the circumstances he'd tried to sell most of his suits to be able to muster up a downpayment on this place as well as the next few months' rent. Armani tuxedos can do that.

He sighed, this wasn't what he was supposed to be doing. He was supposed to be sitting in a big office, dealing with clients while manning his accounting homework, not living real life. Not yet. This wasn't his faith.

Just then, Seto heard a rustling from the main living space, undoubtedly Mokuba, the hibernating teenager, had awoken.

"Seto, I'm just going to go out with a few friends tonight, I might not be back til the morning, I'll text you if anything changes, see ya."

He simply grunted a reply. He liked Mokuba more at this age. The kid was more independent as opposed to the needy little thing he'd been in his early high school years. He sort of missed it, not like he would admit it to anyone, but he much preferred not having to be a swooping parent for once in his life.

It was already late in the evening so he grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down and turned on the TV to some nightly programming. Packing could wait, FIFA could not. Given that these were only replays since he'd missed the earlier matches but was on almost no form of social media, the experience was still significant enough for him.

As his mind wandered and the game moved to the final period, his mind couldn't help but wander to why Joey's sister (Siri was that her name?), had never really been mentioned much before. She couldn't have remembered much of him from their high school days, could have she? Definitely not. The girl had been practically blind, she hardly knew what he looked like let alone sounded like.

He took another sip from the bottle, trying to brush these thoughts aside and concentrate on the game in front of him, until the power cut off.

Damn electricity. He wasn't paying a fortune for this place but he expected enough that he wouldn't be experiencing this type of shitshow.

He sighed, finishing off his beer and reaching for the bottle of whisky he kept openly on the counter, Mokuba wasn't dumb enough to steal his liquor even at this tender age of 16 so he had no worry to hide it. If he was going to go to the main building and deal with Joey then he'd need some help, even if it was from this cheap bottle of Fireball he'd gotten on the way at a gas station. It did the job and that's all that mattered.

Locking the door behind him, he began the trek to the main building, past all the empty villas, glancing every so often behind him as the darkness fell. This wasn't the safest of places and his monthly rent reflected it. At least he was saving money in the long run right?

As he approached the building, Seto noted an increase of volume, a yelling match of the sorts. Shit, he didn't want to walk in on some Family Feud ordeal. This wasn't what he'd signed up for. Electricity wasn't too important, in a few hours the sun would rise right? Isn't that what Wheeler's stupid friend used to say? Oh God, what was his name? Tyler?

He continued past the building and ended up at the residence parking lot, where his little Toyota Fiat rested snugly between two minivans. Fuck did he hate that car. He missed his Audi, but of course the monthly payment had been too much of an upkeep since his father had NEVER purchased a car, only rented them because of his indecisiveness, so in short the Audi had never truly been his, just like most things in that life.

He took a seat on the curb, lighting a cigarette, letting the night air just consume him. Man, even if this was the suburbs, it did feel a bit more airy, not completely filled by gasoline fumes and the smells of other people's cigarette smoke. Nah, tonight it was just his cigarette causing the smell.

Just then he heard footsteps on the gravel behind him, he turned his head to see Joey's sister, fuming and muttering to herself. A very bizarre look for someone who he had always remembered as serene. She didn't seem to notice him till she was literally about to step on his shirt's tail.

"Seriously?"

"Um yeah, I'm sitting here."

Her eyes followed the tail of the shirt to Seto's face, studying it briefly.

"Who are you again?"

Was this a fucking joke? Everyone knew who he was. Hadn't she known only this morning?

"Are you serious?"

She raised her eyebrow, indicating that she was not in a mood for bullshit.

"Kaiba, Seto Kaiba. I went to school with your brother," he said over a puff of smoke, directing it away from her.

"Great, can I have one?"

He looked at her a little surprised, she didn't look like the kind that smoked, but then again, who did? He threw the pack up at her, she missed it, and just ended up picking it up before plopping down next to him.

"Light," She demanded.

He obeyed, watching as the flames lit up her face, revealing her amber-like eyes.

She inhaled the smoke before puffing it out in relief.

"Ah that's what I needed."

He took a moment to study her. She wasn't as chipper as he'd seen her this morning, she also seemed distracted her thoughts in another place, nothing near here at least.

"Serenity? Where did you go?" voices shouted from back inside the complex.

Ah yes, Serenity that was her name.

"Fuck," she swore under her breath, someone was coming, someone she really didn't want to deal with by the looks of her body language.

She turned to Seto and grabbed his face in her hands abruptly.

"Kiss me."

Seto looked at her dumbfounded, "What?"

"Just kiss me."

The footsteps got louder and her eyes got more urgent, searching his face for an answer so he leaned in and kissed her.


End file.
